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Administration Leak
Aired September 29, 2003 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, the Bush administration, the CIA and the American spy whose cover was blown after her husband questioned the war in Iraq. The Justice Department has entered the mix amid reports the spy was ousted for political reasons by senior administration officials.
CNN's David Ensor is standing by in Washington to fill us in on the latest.
David, no doubt a lot of national security implications.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: National security implications and obviously political implication, too, Kyra. The latest step is that the CIA has referred the matter to the Justice Department. Now this is routine. Officials tell me something like 50 times a year a possible leak of information about a covert CIA employee is referred to the Justice Department to be looked into, and there's just a preliminary investigation going in -- inquiry going to right now to see whether a full-blown investigation is needed, but clearly, this brings to the fore a story that we first heard about in July that is embarrassing for the Bush administration, since we're talking here about allegations that two senior Bush administration officials, angry at this man, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who is a critic of theirs on Iraq policy, told reporters, told a number of report including one from this network that Wilson's wife was a covert CIA employee. Now that's a violation of the law. That's a felony with a possible 10- year jail sentence -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: The White House, what type of reaction have you heard or seen, or maybe talked to your sources from there?
ENSOR: Well, the White House is saying that they are willing to cooperate with any sort of investigation, and if phone records need to be made available, they will do so.
Here's one comment that was made just a short time ago by the White House spokesman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SPOKESMAN: That is not the way this White House operates. The president expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. No one would be authorized to do such a thing.
Secondly, there -- I've seen the anonymous media reports. If I could find out who anonymous was, it would make my life a whole lot easier.
But we've made it very clear that anyone, anyone who has information related to this should report that information to the Department of Justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Now, at the start of this, Ambassador Wilson talked about the possibility that this man, Karl Rove, the president's closest and most trusted political adviser, might have been responsible for this leak. Ambassador Wilson is now saying that he misspoke. He may have exaggerated a bit. He does not have any knowledge that it was Karl Rove himself who did that. Nonetheless, he's quite angry about what has happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH WILSON, FMR, U.S. AMB.: This is, after all, an administration that promised to restore dignity and honor to the White House, and acting like schoolyard bullies, pulling the hair of a little girl, metaphorically speaking, is something that I don't think people appreciate very much, and I suspect there's been a visceral reaction to that, the unnecessary dragging of my wife's name into this field.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: So the next step will be for the Justice Department to determine whether they want to do a full-blown inquiry. Of course, as you've heard, Democrats are calling for something more, an independent investigation -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, we'll continue to follow that, of course. Our David Ensor, thank you so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 29, 2003 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, the Bush administration, the CIA and the American spy whose cover was blown after her husband questioned the war in Iraq. The Justice Department has entered the mix amid reports the spy was ousted for political reasons by senior administration officials.
CNN's David Ensor is standing by in Washington to fill us in on the latest.
David, no doubt a lot of national security implications.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: National security implications and obviously political implication, too, Kyra. The latest step is that the CIA has referred the matter to the Justice Department. Now this is routine. Officials tell me something like 50 times a year a possible leak of information about a covert CIA employee is referred to the Justice Department to be looked into, and there's just a preliminary investigation going in -- inquiry going to right now to see whether a full-blown investigation is needed, but clearly, this brings to the fore a story that we first heard about in July that is embarrassing for the Bush administration, since we're talking here about allegations that two senior Bush administration officials, angry at this man, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who is a critic of theirs on Iraq policy, told reporters, told a number of report including one from this network that Wilson's wife was a covert CIA employee. Now that's a violation of the law. That's a felony with a possible 10- year jail sentence -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: The White House, what type of reaction have you heard or seen, or maybe talked to your sources from there?
ENSOR: Well, the White House is saying that they are willing to cooperate with any sort of investigation, and if phone records need to be made available, they will do so.
Here's one comment that was made just a short time ago by the White House spokesman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SPOKESMAN: That is not the way this White House operates. The president expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. No one would be authorized to do such a thing.
Secondly, there -- I've seen the anonymous media reports. If I could find out who anonymous was, it would make my life a whole lot easier.
But we've made it very clear that anyone, anyone who has information related to this should report that information to the Department of Justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: Now, at the start of this, Ambassador Wilson talked about the possibility that this man, Karl Rove, the president's closest and most trusted political adviser, might have been responsible for this leak. Ambassador Wilson is now saying that he misspoke. He may have exaggerated a bit. He does not have any knowledge that it was Karl Rove himself who did that. Nonetheless, he's quite angry about what has happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH WILSON, FMR, U.S. AMB.: This is, after all, an administration that promised to restore dignity and honor to the White House, and acting like schoolyard bullies, pulling the hair of a little girl, metaphorically speaking, is something that I don't think people appreciate very much, and I suspect there's been a visceral reaction to that, the unnecessary dragging of my wife's name into this field.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENSOR: So the next step will be for the Justice Department to determine whether they want to do a full-blown inquiry. Of course, as you've heard, Democrats are calling for something more, an independent investigation -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, we'll continue to follow that, of course. Our David Ensor, thank you so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
